Ypres, Belgium. Chlorine, synthesized at military level by the German chemist Fritz Haber, is used against Allied troops, especially the French and Algerians. Five thousand cylinders are placed along a 7-kilometer stretch of front and opened as soon as the northeast wind is favorable. The same attack will be repeated on the Eastern Front against the Russians. The Allied response is quick to arrive, triggering an escalation that leads to the military development of phosgene (carbonyl chloride), mustard gas, and other chlorinated compounds of sulfur and arsenic. The chlorine destroys the blood vessels in the lungs, and the victim drowns in the fluid produced by his own body in an attempt to repair the damage. Phosgene has a faint odor of freshly cut hay.
